Symon removed his fingers from around Safiya's eye socket and took a few quick steps backward, although he was moving quickly more out of principle than necessity. It would take some time to fully drain the surrounding grass and put her in any danger, but Symon wanted to set the habit of being extra careful whenever he could.

Almost immediately... nothing happened. The empty socket remained completely unchanged. Similarly, the scars around and over the eye hadn't begun fading. Safiya's single eye danced between Symon and Aslan nervously before she said something, which Aslan translated for Symon.

"She says she doesn't feel anything," he said before continuing on with a question of his own. "You said it wasn't painful, correct? Perha—"

All of a sudden, Safiya let out a low groan. Symon took an automatic half-step forward in response, but hovered just out of range of his draining magic. Aslan had no such restriction, so he rushed to her side to support her. She collapsed to a knee before he could reach her, one hand on the ground as the other rubbed at her eye. Symon could see she was blinking heavily, just like how he would if he had an eyelash in his eye.

"Get her to stop touching it!" Symon called out, to which Aslan grabbed the offending hand and began speaking quickly to her.

Something is happening, let's hope that means it's working, he thought. There was nothing else he could do for her now beyond hoping it worked and making sure her probing fingers didn't disrupt anything. Like always, he'd lost all awareness and control over the vitality the second it left him, so he simply had to trust that it was still doing what he wanted. Regrowing his fingers hadn't been painful, but it had felt exceedingly uncomfortable. She would be happy with the end result, but Symon sympathised with having to endure the process. He just hoped it was working properly...

Aslan helped lower her to a more comfortable sitting position — something Symon realised he should have already put her in — where she assumed what looked like a meditative stance. She had her legs crossed, while her hands were in fists that rested on her knees. They kept clenching and relaxing, and he could see the veins popping from on her hands and up her forearm. She mumbled something in between sucking in deep breaths and equally forceful exhalations.

"She says it feels bad," Aslan supplied.

Symon frowned to himself. "Bad? Is it painful or just strange? And make sure she keeps her eye closed for now," he said, wanting to make sure nothing foreign could get into her eye and make things worse.

After a quick back and forth, Aslan answered. "Her eye doesn't hurt, but she keeps seeing flashes of light. She's dizzy, and her head is aching as well."

Symon considered both what he should do, and what he actually could do. His draining could remove the excess vitality if it was causing any issues, but he wasn't sure that was the case. Her eye was completely gone, so Symon interpreted the sudden flashed of light as a good thing. Something was better than nothing, at least. Similarly, he hoped that the headaches and dizziness was just her brain adapting, but he was flying by the seat of his pants here.

He repeated his theory to the others, although he phrased it more confidently. No sense in panicking them when he could just fix any issues that might crop up. Probably.

With nothing to do but wait, Symon manifested part of his Ledger to check his exact amount of vitality, finding that he'd used seven points up. He was confident that would be enough, considering he'd only used four units to replace as many fingers.

Gradually, Safiya's writhing and ragged breathing slowly calmed down. It took almost ten minutes, twice as long as it had taken for his fingers, but she let out a final sigh of relief. She'd scrunched both her eyes tightly shut, still listening to his previous request to keep them that way.

Did it work...? he thought, disappointment already tinging his words. The wicked scars across her face were still there, completely unchanged.

All of a sudden, her eyelids fluttered open, eliciting a gasp of surprise from every observer. Symon leaned in closer, shocked to see two deep brown eyes looking back at him, squinting slightly from the glare. It... had actually worked! He hadn't been confident once he saw the scars weren't fading. The three massive lines still marred the left side of her face, but her eye was back!

Both of Safiya's eyes were glistening with moisture, but she let out a loud, joyous laugh as she looked up at the sky. Atabek skidded to a halt in front of her, before stooping down to look at her new eye. All of a sudden, she was flying through the air with an "eeek!" as the giant of a man tossed her up into the air before catching her like a parent would with a child. The adventurers all huddled together, cheering and jumping around in celebration.

Symon stood apart, a slightly bittersweet smile on his face. He wouldn't be able to get close to them, of course. Atabek noticed him off to the side, and made to reach out as if to usher him into the group hug. His mouth formed into a small 'o' of surprise as he remembered why he couldn't, the excitement momentarily causing him to forget the danger. His outstretched hand slowly morphed into a thumbs-up, to which Symon just smiled and nodded for him to go back to the hug.

Symon walked back to their campfire, letting the group have their moment. He suppressed a slight sniffle as he mixed the stew pot, ensuring the bottom wasn't burning.

C'mon Symon, keep it together, he thought to himself. He knew why it was affecting him like this. It was an emotional moment, sure, but he hadn't known these people for long. It was the realisation that while he might physically be in a new world, he'd be living in a separate one from everyone else. Logically, he already knew that his draining magic would cause issues for him, but he hadn't been expecting it to hit him in the face like this. The adventures were experienced at staying out of his range by now, to the point that it was easy to forget there was any danger, but he'd just been starkly reminded.

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A few seconds of being drained wouldn't be a big issue — everyone had willingly donated some vitality when Atabek had been injured, and they'd all recovered just fine. His draining wasn't that fast, especially when he wasn't empowering it. Plus, the adventurers were hardy people who had already demonstrated they could recover well even without his vitality, which went a long way to helping Symon sleep better. It wasn't like they'd shrivel to a husk the moment they stepped into his range, but it wasn't something he wanted to do needlessly.

He still didn't know if there were any longer-term side effects. He'd been thinking of it a bit like blood, as a substance in your body that would naturally replenish itself over time if needed, but he didn't know if it was safe to repeatedly draw like how someone could donate blood.

And he hadn't forgotten that his draining would slowly grow in both speed and range the more he used it, something he couldn't prevent from happening. He'd been looking forward to getting to live his new life without his mortality constantly looming over his head, but it was looking like he'd be missing out on more and more of this new life.

Keelgrave interrupted.

"I am," Symon said in the comfort of his mind. "It's just sinking in that I won't be able to live a normal life with magic like this."

Heh, that would be kind of funny, he thought to himself, picturing a little robot feeding him berries like an ancient king being fed grapes. Cool as it may be, it wasn't really what Symon was looking for. Well, he would definitely get one if it was feasible, but the problem was the lack of human interaction. He'd been a sickly child and then a workaholic obsessed with his studies as a young adult, a poor combination for meeting people. Now, with a healthy body and no responsibilities, he wanted to make some genuine friendships, especially considering how unlikely a quick return home seemed. He got along with the adventurers, but the language barrier coupled with their awe at his healing made things difficult.

The group in question broke his contemplation with their return to the campfire, so he turned around to greet them, forcing a smile on his face as he did so. The adventurers were all grinning, while Atabek had upgraded his previous thumbs-up to a two-handed thumbs-up. The image of the giant battle-scarred man assuming such a child-like pose caused Symon to let out an unintentional snort of laughter. "No problems with the eye?" he asked immediately, trying to move on from the embarrassing noise.

Before Aslan could answer, Safiya stepped forward and began to speak, the previous joviality replaced with a serious expression. "Thank you... honour... friend Symon," came her slowly delivered words, the vowels stretched out and rolled due to her heavy accent. She pressed both fists together in front of her before bowing so deeply Symon thought she would be able to see what was behind her. She held this position for a few seconds before rising back up, and when she did so the smile was back on her face.

"It was no trouble," Symon said, trusting Aslan to convey his meaning. "You seemed dangerous enough already against that razor stalker, so I bet with both eyes you'll be a real menace against the next thing that tries to eat us."

She simply smiled and nodded, leading Symon to think that was all. But with a mischievous glint in both her eyes, she suddenly darted forward and wrapped him in a hug.

Despite the height difference, she easily leaned back and lifted him so that his feet were dangling off the ground.

He barked out a short laugh before speaking. "Safiya, you know my magic— urk," was all he got out before she squeezed him tighter, feeling like his bones were creaking as she did so. He'd been sitting in one spot for too long, meaning his magic had killed all the nearby plants already, leaving Symon with nothing to distract the dark grey thread of Seize. He could do nothing to control it as it attached to Safiya, pulsing gently as it slowly siphoned out the vitality like a giant leech.

At first, Symon struggled and writhed, trying to escape her bear hug. His efforts were ineffectual — maybe he could have escaped if he really tried to hurt her, but that was the opposite of what he wanted. After a few moments of panic at the damage he would inadvertently cause, he began to relax. Safiya wasn't stupid, and by now the adventurers were all well aware of the danger of his magic. It wasn't that fast, but they all knew they should avoid it nonetheless.

He shot a pleading glance towards Aslan and Atabek, but those traitors were having the time of their lives laughing at his predicament. Sighing, he simply gave into the moment, trusting that she would release him before she hurt herself. He gave her a couple of awkward pats on the back.

Jesus Christ, he thought, her back muscles feel like they're made of stone. Where does she get all the protein?

After what felt like a very long time, but must have been only ten or so seconds, Symon was released from his confinement. Even in that short time frame, he felt like he'd noticed her grip weakening. It was subtle, to the point he thought it might have just been his fears causing a placebo, but he interpreted it as an effect of the stolen vitality. It wasn't even equivalent to a single full unit, but he wouldn't want to push it any further.

He took a step back as she gracefully danced backwards too, delivering another bow after retreating to a safe distance. She had an open, innocent smile that seemed out of place on a face with such harsh scars. The three lines in her skin passing over and around her eye were still there, mocking him for his failure to completely finish what he'd wanted to fix. Even the one in the centre that passed directly over her eyelid was still present, although the new eyeball appeared in perfect condition. Symon was completely stumped as to why this happened. He'd delivered the vitality directly to her eye area, giving more vitality than was necessary just to be on the safe side. So why were the scars still present, when all of his own were removed?

It didn't appear to bother her, at least. In fact, she'd always seemed quite proud of how the scars looked. The adventurers had obviously lived a rough life by Earth standards, but that seemed the norm for this new world. It wasn't like they had an especially dangerous career either; he thought of them as adventurers, but it was more of a temporary coming-of-age ceremony than a long-term thing. They'd already told Symon about some of the dangers of their homeland. The monsters and wild beasts seemed so common that he wasn't even sure if Safiya had lost her eye before or after setting out on this adventure.

Regardless of the dangers of the world, he found his mood rapidly improving. The hug had lifted his spirits, although a part of him wondered if she was helping him train Crushing Resistance.

He had some solid, dependable allies with a strong bond of mutual trust, even if it was hard to develop a true connection with most of them considering he could only communicate properly with Aslan. Of course, fighting side by side and risking their lives for one another had a way of binding them together in a way that simple conversation could not.

Either way, a simple hug communicated what words could not.